CNN Business
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For years, artificial cacti have lined the sandy roadside of North Scottsdale, Arizona. Though they look real at first glance, they contain hidden antennas and radio equipment that provide 4G LTE wireless connectivity to the area. These massive, hidden structures (in this case, about 24 feet tall) have become so well-crafted that it’s sometimes hard to tell the real cactus from the fake.
Across the U.S., 4G’s ungainly cell towers are often “camouflaged” with vegetation native to the region. In the Northeast, evergreens are attached to the cell towers. In the South, they’re decorated to look like palm trees. In the West, they’re planted with cacti. In some cases, the units are hidden in existing church bell towers, town square signs, or the sides of historic buildings. In farmland, 4G-enabled water towers are installed as props to give the impression they’re part of the landscape.
But with the rollout of 5G, the next generation of wireless speeds, cities like Scottsdale will rely not on elaborate concealment but on a piece of architecture that has been a central part of urban and suburban environments for more than a century: streetlights.
While not as creative as hiding the technology in artificial plants, the change is now happening around the world. “Design will be just as important as we move forward with 5G rollout, but it will be more about street lights than cacti,” said Keith Niederer, communications policy coordinator for Scottsdale.
That’s because 5G wireless signals from small cell sites operate at higher millimeter wave frequencies than 4G, which are more easily blocked by objects like wooden furniture, leaves, and certain materials. As a result, they need to be placed every few hundred feet, and those distances will get shorter as data-hungry technologies like self-driving cars arrive on our roads. And the antennas need to be installed close to street level so people can access the signal, leaving most of them exposed.
This means that 5G can’t be contained in a neat box: the technology needs to be deployed out in the open, on high streets, on residential roads, and frankly, everywhere.
“Aesthetics is very important in Scottsdale. Every street has a different theme, and different street lights,” Niederer added, noting technical limitations. “We want the street lights to blend in as much as possible without being obtrusive.”
About 30 times faster than 4G in the US, 5G will enable a massive increase in internet traffic and bandwidth, with no lag and faster response times for data transfers. While 4G enabled services like FaceTime and Uber, 5G aims to do much more, such as helping self-driving cars process all the information they need to make life-or-death decisions in an instant, and enabling robotic surgery. But in the short term, the introduction of 5G presents an opportunity for companies keeping the technology under wraps.
Wireless carriers in the Phoenix metropolitan area, which includes Scottsdale, are working with Valmont Industries, one of the world’s largest concealment companies and which built the first camouflaged pine towers in the Denver market about 30 years ago, to ensure colors, designs and applications match the neighborhoods. (Valmont just finished a similar project with the city of San Antonio, Texas, replacing the city’s distinctive grooved poles with a similar style but with a sturdier base and thicker steel to support 5G equipment.)
“There’s no form factor that we wouldn’t consider using,” said Mark Schmidt, general manager of communications concealment at Valmont. “Our goal is to bridge the gap between the aesthetics of the community, what the jurisdiction wants, and what wireless carriers want as a form factor. … But the most natural fit here is traffic lights and street lights.”
Verizon (VZ), T-Mobile (TMUS) and AT&T (T), which owns CNN parent WarnerMedia, are pouring billions of dollars into 5G, with the new networks and related technologies expected to contribute $17 trillion to global economic growth by 2035, according to technology market research firm ABI Research. Telecommunications carriers have continued to roll out networks across the U.S. despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming engineering challenges and installing new base stations as employees practice social distancing and city permitting offices were closed during the early stages of the outbreak.But technology companies such as Cisco say the pandemic has highlighted the need for 5G’s faster, higher-bandwidth connectivity.
Replacing old streetlights with 5G-enabled ones to support this growth may seem like a relatively small process, but doing so will be a big step towards many communities becoming smart cities.
Powering lampposts makes them “an essential part of any smart city project,” according to Dean Tan, an analyst at ABI Research. They can also serve as charging stations, security cameras, and LED displays for advertising. The Japanese government is piloting this approach in Tokyo, where smart lampposts are equipped with public Wi-Fi and cameras that provide real-time traffic information to help city authorities manage traffic, as well as digital advertising and information boards.
Tan said there are “growth opportunities” for 5G companies that will play a major role in the global rollout of 5G. [beyond smart poles] “This could also include bus stop signs, manhole covers and traffic lights,” he said, “but street lights are ideal because of their height and existing power source.”
Tom Kuklo, global product manager at Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), which has already deployed smart streetlight components in several international cities, agrees that streetlights will soon become important communications hubs. “We’re already seeing this phenomenon in China and other places where smart poles are widespread,” he says. “Streetlights are becoming part of the landscape. You can walk past a streetlight and not realize it’s broadcasting a 5G signal unless you look for it.”
He said there was also growing interest in concealing 5G for security reasons: In the UK, some groups have shot down or set fire to 5G street lights over unfounded fears of health risks and conspiracy theories suggesting a link to COVID-19.
“Hidden is really the buzzword, it’s what everyone is trying to do right now,” Kuklo said, pointing out the various reasons for adoption. “Interest in 5G has at least doubled compared to last year, but 4G hidden is still rolling out. Not everyone in the world is on the same page when it comes to wireless connectivity.”
